A good starter label maker

I had always been fascinated with label makers (my wife says it's a "guy thing"). When I was a kid, I had one of those Dymo embossing label makers, with the plastic tape and the big wheel, and the squeeze handle to press the letters into the label. I put my name on everything (in fact, some at the stuff at my mother's house still has the tape with my name on it). In later years, I wanted one of those new electronic label makers, ever since I saw the Brother P-Touch commercial on TV, but they were always so expensive. Neat to look at, but I didn't really need a toy that expensive.

Around Christmas, 2002, I was shopping at Wal-Mart when I saw a display in the center aisle, a bin full of the Dymo LetraTag QX50s. I had never seen this model before, and my wife called it to my attention (she knows me). When I saw the price, I knew then and there, I had to have one. So, I took the plunge.

The QX50 has a lot of features that make it nice. It prints on 1/2" (12mm) wide tape stock (each cartridge contains 13'). The tape stock is available in paper (for temporary items like lunch bags, food containers, and more), plastic (more durable and permanent, but more expensive than paper) and metallic (for outdoor applications), in a variety of colors. They also have iron-on fabric tape, for labeling your child's clothes, towels and more. The QX50 uses direct-thermal print technology, so no ribbons or ink are needed (with the exception of the iron-on fabric tape, which has a self-contained ribbon). The tape backing is split down the middle, making it easier to remove.

Unlike most label makers I've seen, the QX50 has a QWERTY keyboard - laid out like a typewriter. This means less hunting and pecking to find the right letter. The keys, while not always easy to push, are rubberized and laid out fairly well. There is a 9-character LCD display. Tape stock is loaded on the underside of the unit; cartridges are fairly easy to change, but care must be taken to ensure that they are properly seated. If not, printing can be skewed.

The QX50 has four different print sizes - the first three are 1/8" height, in varying widths, and the large mode is 3/16" height. The character height is a small annoyance; it seems like on a 1/2" wide label, they could have used at least half the tape height for characters. It has a two line mode, which shrinks the type so that both lines occupy 3/16" height, combined (but does not change the character width). It is capable of printing in various type styles, including reversed, which is very handy when using the clear plastic tape which is available.

An extensive symbol set is included, although I rarely use them. Labels can be printed with or without boxes, with shadowed or outlined text, etc. It can print multiple copies of a label, and can store several labels in its memory. It can automatically adjust the label length to the text, or can be set to a fixed length (a nice feature, but tricky to use).

The QX50 is powered by 6 AA batteries (not included), and has no provision for an AC adapter (another drawback). From my experience, battery life is excellent (I've owned it over two years, and am still on the first set of batteries). One roll of white paper tape is included with the unit.

Functionally, although other reviewers have experienced problems with the tape cutter, I have not. And, unlike the more expensive machines we use at work, the QX50 has never misfed a label, or failed to print characters in the correct spacing. The print, especially in the larger sizes, does look a bit jagged on the edges, but that's a small concern.

Supplies (tape stock) for the QX50 are not always easy to find. The only store that I've seen carrying them is Wal-Mart. Some of the tape stock is hard to find. I tried finding the clear plastic tape, which was listed on the Dymo Web site for some time, for almost a year before it started showing up in some stores. This seems to be getting better.

I have used this label maker for everything from labeling my mailbox, digital camera, cell phone, VHS tapes, electrical plugs underneath our aquarium, cable lines coming into our splitter/amplifier, manila file folders, etc. While there are probably better label printers out there, I'm probably going to stick with this one, as it is all I need.